596 Birds of anomalous Plumage, 



In the Montrose Review there appeared, a good while ago, a 

 notice of a perfectly white male pheasant, that had been re- 

 cently shot at the Hill of Woodstow, and was then in Mr. 

 Malleson's museum. 



A White Woodcoclc was seen three successive winters In 

 Penrice Wood, Glamorganshire. {Professor Rennie in p. 

 562. of his Mont. Orn. Diet.) The fact is quoted from Bewick, 

 who had derived it from Sir John Trevelyan, Bart. 



A White Snipe was once met with by two gentlemen shoot- 

 ing in Ireland, as one of them has told me. — J. D. 



Of a Water Rail, every Feather of which was of a pure 

 White, an instance is registered in V. 384. " The rich coral 

 colour of the beak formed a singular and beautiful contrast 

 to the delicate hue of the plumage." 



White Blackbirds (or Yellowbills, as S. D. W. has ingeni- 

 ously called them above, to avoid a contradiction in terms) 

 seem not of very rare occurrence. Besides the instances re- 

 lated by S. D. W., in p. 593., another is registered in III. 

 146. A correspondent has supplied the following additional 

 one. 



In 1829, a blackbird's nest, containing four or five young 

 ones, was found at Rougham, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suf- 

 folk. One of the young ones differed in colour materially from 

 the rest. Its eyes were red, its bill was yellow (which is not 

 usual in very young blackbirds). The nest was not taken till 

 the young were fully fledged. On attempting to capture them, 

 two or three made their escape ; the white one was safely 

 caught : another was captured, after its thigh had been broken ; 

 this soon died. The red-eyed bird afterwards became nearly 

 or wholly white, and it still retains this colour. Mr. Ely of 

 Bury St. Edmunds, the person who reared the bird [in whose 

 possession it was anteriorly to May 27. 1829], had received 

 repeated offers of a guinea for it ; he ultimately sold it to Mr. 

 S. Middleditch; of whom Mr. Partridge of London pur- 

 chased it for 21. 10s. It is worth noticing that the bird, which 

 died with a broken limb, was remarkably black ; much more 

 so than young blackbirds usually are. — Henry Turner. Bury 

 St. Edmunds, March 1. 1833. [Mr. Partridge brought the 

 bird to London : I happened to make the journey with him 

 and it on Jan. 4. 1833. — J. D. 



Captain Brown, in the same note, in his edition of White's 

 Selhorne, from which we have before quoted, relates these 

 instances of blackbirds of unusual colour: — " In the summer 

 of 1831, a blackbird's nest was found at Newbottle, near 

 Edinburgh, containing four young, two of which were of the 

 ordinary colour, and two perfectly white. The former turned 



